Lombardi Ranch Celebrates 21st Annual Harvest Festival

Saugus – On October 3rd Lombardi Ranch celebrated its 21st Harvest Festival. The ranch is a real working farm in the Santa Clarita Valley that provides a wide range of outdoor activities for families to enjoy the Halloween and Thanksgiving season.

Every season children and adults gather at the Saugus ranch to pick pumpkins, listen to live music, view a showcase exhibit of scarecrows and take a train ride through a field of corn stalks. The petting zoo of turkeys, and other various animals, also contribute to the Thanksgiving feel.

The property has been apart of the Lombardi family since the early 1940s, when it began with the farming of strawberries and potatoes. After the ranch fell fallow for a few years, the most recent owners, Joann and Bob Lombardi, began to recultivate the crops and added additional produce.

Past seasonal gatherings have been somewhat irregular, however, this year Joann Lombardi was exceptionally happy with the numbers. “It seems like there’s thousands of people here. Its one of the biggest opening days we’ve had in the 21 years, it’s very exciting.” Fortunately for Lombardi, when the economy fell, families began participating in the festival’s activities once again.

As always, there was an annual scarecrow design contest, in which many girlscouts and other participants submitted their best creativity. Grand prize winner and father, James Sequenzia, had visited the festival last year with his family and felt encouraged to enter a scarecrow this fall. “We thought it would be a fun family thing to work on during the summer.”

The ranch also allows residents to shop the produce stand weekly up until the day before Thanksgiving. The Halloween festival of events is open weekends only, until Halloween. Be sure to head out for some pumpkin carving and fun facepainting this fall.